Assuming I have an endpoint GET /api/foos/{id} which has optional parameters: includes, query, type should I create a link for each of the 'usecases' or can I include it as a single link?
Should it look more like this:
"_links":{
"self": { "href": "/api/foos/1" },
"includes": { "href": "/api/foos/1{?includes}", "templated": true },
"query": { "href": "/api/foos/1{?query}", "templated": true },
"type": { "href": "/api/foos/1{?type}", "templated": true },
}
Or maybe like this:
"_links":{
"self": { "href": "/api/foos/1" },
"query": { "href": "/api/foos/1{?includes}{?query}{?type}", "templated": true },
}
What if I also have paging related links, like next, prev etc. Should I include these templates for them, too? For example:
"next": { "href": "/api/foos?page=2{?includes}", "templated": true }
According to RFC6570, Section 3.2.1 (which is the foundation for URL templating) you can add multiple parameters and parameter without a value will be ignored:
A variable that is undefined (Section 2.3) has no value and is ignored by the expansion process.
That means for your example that you can use following HAL response:
"_links":{
"self": { "href": "/api/foos/1" },
"query": { "href": "/api/foos/1{?includes,query,type}", "templated": true },
}
And it should work for your paging example as well.